Keith Gretzky will look after Bakersfield as Oilers assistant GM

Keith Gretzky, on the very short list for the Edmonton Oilers’ full-time GM job with Mark Hunter and perhaps Sean Burke until Detroit’s Ken Holland came free, will once again be the team’s assistant general manager but rather than focus on the amateur side of things, he’ll be looking after the Bakersfield farm team players as outgoing VP of hockey ops Craig MacTavish did. MacTavish is coaching Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the KHL

Is Gretzky happy to be back in his old role?

“Yes. that’s a quick answer, eh?” laughed Gretzky, who had the interim GM tag for three and a half months after Peter Chiarelli was fired and was in the running with Hunter, the former Maple Leafs’ assistant GM and London Knights’ junior general manager and reportedly Burke, the Western pro scout for Montreal and GM of Canada’s 2018 Olympic team, until Holland expressed interest in the Oilers job.

“I’ll learn a lot from Ken, how to handle situations … It’s worked out great for us (Oilers). I’m not mad or anything. You always want something (GM) but it was the right call. To have somebody like Ken, it’s going to work for everybody,” said Gretzky, who will have a chance to build a bigger resume and could still be the heir apparent when Holland’s five-year deal ends.

Gretzky is bullish on the prospects in Bakersfield.

“We’ll have a younger team next year with forwards (Ryan) McLeod and (Kirill) Maksimov and the defencemen (Evan) Bouchard and (Dmitri) Samorukov but we will still have the leadership of Brad Malone and (Joe) Gambardella and (Keegan) Lowe,” said Gretzky.

One of their better kids, winger Ostap Safin, 20, who can’t escape the injury bug with hip issues that came to the fore before training camp last fall, was hurt again at the Memorial Cup playing for Halifax after playing just 15 league games.

“Collarbone, I think, this time around. He missed a lot of hockey this past year,” said Gretzky.

How many of the organization’s kids are ready to be NHLers?

“I dunno,” said Gretzky. “It’s the coach’s job (Jay Woodcroft) to make sure they’re ready for the NHL and nothing’s handed to them. Jay did a great job last year and it was all merit-based. Just because you’re a first-rounder doesn’t mean you’ll play.”

Gretzky is really pumped about Bouchard and Samorukov, who turns 20 next Monday.

“Evan picked up his pace (during the AHL playoffs), that wasn’t a problem,” said Gretzky.

People who saw him in his short playoff work with Bakersfield feel Bouchard has to work on playing more aggressively on opposing forwards on the attack, which is why time in the AHL will work for him. That’s where farm defenceman coach Dave Manson comes in. He did a fantastic job this past year.

“Samorukov has been outstanding (junior). That’s where you hit home runs (with a third-round draft pick),” said Gretzky. “He’s got a ways to go but he’s a high-end prospect. He’ll be a top-four (NHL) D.”

He’s got puck skills and some abrasiveness.

“He got way more skill than people think. Look at his points in the playoffs (28 points for the Guelph Storm). He’s a beast and he’s dirty. That’s what I like about him,” said Gretzky, who will see Samorukov at the team’s development camp right after the draft ends in Vancouver, likely at the downtown Community rink.

Draft plans

Gretzky will help with the draft June 21-22, but chief scout Bob Green is in the chair. “I saw enough juniors (before the Chiarelli firing). We’re going to get a good player (at the No. 8 draft position). The draft starts at No. 3 because everybody knows who’s going in the top two (Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko).” Fort Saskatchewan’s centre Kirby Dach, who plays for the Saskatoon Blades, would be ideal for the Oilers but many amateur scouts feel Los Angeles will take him at No. 5.

On the mend

Bakersfield Condors winger Kailer Yamamoto needed surgery during the playoffs for a torn tendon on his wrist. “It was a fluke thing at camp (last fall), he kept playing … and it got worse,” said Gretzky.

“He’s had time with the big club but missed all that time in the playoffs. He’ll have to go down, play hard and have a year like (Tyler) Benson had.” Benson had 66 points in his rookie season.

Defenceman Ethan Bear had a shoulder problem but not serious. “He’s made really good strides. He’s quicker and realizes what it takes. A lot of guys don’t get it,” said Gretzky.

The problem with Bear is this: the Oilers have signed Swede Joel Persson to a one-way, $1 million contract and both are right-shot, offensive D. For now, Persson has a leg up on Bear.

This ’n that: The Oilers aren’t signing Providence College goalie Hayden Hawkey even if he was a big part of his team getting to the NCAA tournament this spring. He’ll be a free-agent in August. “We have too many goalies in (Shane) Starrett, (Stuart) Skinner and (Dylan) Wells who were in Bakersfield and (Olivier) Rodrigue will be coming out in another year,” said Gretzky … The signing of unrestricted free-agent winger farmhand Patrick Russell to a one-year, two-way deal makes good sense because he didn’t hurt himself as a fourth-line player in his six-game call-up last season. “He did a lot of good things for us. He’s a smart player,” said former head coach Ken Hitchcock … Interesting that local boy Spencer Foo has signed with Kunlun Red Star, the Beijing-based KHL team, after two years in the Flames organization. NHL pro scouts watching the AHL final between Chicago Wolves (Vegas farm club) and Charlotte Checkers (Carolina) say ex-Oiler defenceman Griffin Reinhart was very good for Rocky Thompson’s Wolves. “He can be a six-seven NHL defenceman,” said a Western-based pro scout. Reinhart will be signing a two-way somewhere else because there’s no room for him in Vegas and they value Nicolas Hague and Zach Whitecloud higher.

Hockey Hall of Fame writer Jim Matheson talks to host Craig Ellingson about the potential of a Milan Lucic-for-Loui Eriksson deal between the Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks, about where forward Jesse Puljujarvi stands with the Oilers as the NHL Draft — a.k.a. NHL GMs trading convention — approaches, and about who/what the Oilers might target with the eighth overall pick in the June 21-22 draft.

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